Stress into laughter

As a family, we love to get together for different adventures as often as possible.  Numbering twenty seven it can be a challenge to get everyone's schedule's to mesh.  Such was the case tonight.  We decided since daughter Jamie, who lives four hours away was coming home this weekend, it would be a good time to go bowling together.   All were notified and the plan was made to hit the road about seven o'clock to the closest alley which was about 40 miles away.   The first sign of trouble came when Son-in-law Tyler called to reserve  lanes. He found out no lanes were available until 9:30!  Many more phone calls back and forth and finally a bowling alley was found  60+ miles away, so plans were put into place to go there.  In the mean time Jamie had gotten a late start and was still a good hour away.  Daughter Karen called and rightly pointed out that if we didn't get going we were barely going to arrive and get shoes on all the kiddo's (eight of them are four or younger) and it would be time for them to close.  So we decided that we would all head on up together and Pa would wait for Jamie and they would come up when she arrived.  One more call was made to Karen to let her know we were on our way.

 Needless to say, by this time with so many changes, wondering what to do and hungry people who had planned on eating at the first bowling alley, tempers were getting a little on edge and voices were getting a little short.  I hung up the phone only to have it ring immediately.  I answered it and quickly realized that  there was no one on the other end but I heard voices, one of which was Karen speaking to her hubby Ryan.  I hung up and loudly said to the occupants on the family bus "HERE'S A LITTLE TIP FOR YA, DON'T LET YOUR KIDS PLAY WITH THE PHONE WHILE YOU ARE TELLING YOUR HUSBAND HOW IRRITATED YOU ARE WITH YOUR MOTHER!"  Everyone burst out laughing but I wasn't seeing the humor in it just yet.  Once we  picked Karen and her family up, we realized in about four seconds that none of us wanted to travel that far and that late to bowl so we decided to head back to Stacie's and play games instead.  Once that decision was made the stress rolled off of us like dew melting on a hot summer day.  On the way we laughed about the conversation I had overheard and  irritated and irritating was the most used  of any in the word game we ended up playing.  We all laughed and laughed until we had tears running down our faces.  We all agreed that this was going to be another great memory and something we will laugh about for years to come.

That's how it is with this crazy family.  We can get mad at each other - in fact if you could have been a part of some of the dramatic events we have experienced with one another you might be amazed we speak to each other, let alone consider ourselves each others best friends.  But we do!  In fact all of the silly little fusses we've had over the years has only served to draw us closer.  It gives us history as a family.  We love, we worry, we cry, we pray, we rejoice, we squabble, we forgive, all as one.  But most of all we laugh together.  Long, loud, and often.  We can laugh at ourselves, as a group and as  individuals.  Don't think for a minute that we don't realize what a blessing that is.   How boring life would be if we didn't have enough passion for one another to get annoyed every now and then.   How much less we would have to laugh about. And laughter is my favorite shared activity with this crazy bunch!